As if we didn’t have enough privacy concerns to worry about already, the newest breach of SMS rights violation is probably the last nail in the coffin. What happened recently is that the law making agencies, particularly the cops, are demanding an access to U.S. citizens’ SMS records. The police have submitted a proposal that “requests” access to text message records dating all the way back to 2 years ago.

All big cellular services companies, such as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and numerous wireless providers in general, are requested to store SMS information in order for this entire thing to work. Normally wireless providers save data in the form of archives. Seeing to the volume of the text messages from thousands of subscribers, a company might clear its database after every few months.

But since the lawmaking agencies have asked wireless providers to retain end-user SMS info, it looks like there is no other choice but to comply with whatever that’s being asked. Back in 2009, over 626,683 SMS messages were poured out by SkyTel, one of the wireless providers subpoenaed to hand over evidence concerning wire fraud prosecutions.

A spokesman for Major Cities Chief Police Association: Chuck DeWitt says, some providers like Verizon store SMS messages for a brief period of time but most of them don’t. T-Mobile doesn’t store them at all.”

Is This Ethical?

The question comes down to ethics and your privacy? How does it feel if a stranger is breathing down your neck all the time? Pretty creepy, huh? This theory is applicable to text messages, but I guess we all like to pretend that no one’s monitoring our SMS records.

We are given an illusion of freedom these days. The fact is that everything is controlled; we’re all slaves to policies, guidelines, laws, poisonous products, banking system and what not. I would love to talk about freedom but then it goes slightly off context in this article. Maybe someday, we will all sit down and have a little casual shit chat about the meaning of freedom in today’s day and age.

As far as the question of ethics is concerned, to some extent, yes, it is ethical. If cops, or several law making agencies are required to demand for someone’s SMS message record due to a criminal investigation, there is nothing wrong with it. For instance, in one of the letters that this guy: Sgt. Gates sent to T-Mobile, it says:

“T-Mobile produced the requested information on October 20, 2009, and the records show that Defendant’s use of the T-Mobile cell phone was almost exclusively for text messaging. The results reveal that T-Mobile does not store and has no capacity to produce the content of end user text messaging.”

The above excerpt shows that SMS messages have been produced or an attempt has been made to show them in court. It also clears the point that for now T-Mobile has not been storing SMS because of several “incompatibility” issues. Compared to AT&T and other companies, T-Mobile is a small scale operator. They will need to invest in high end data storage facilities/ equipment to be able to comply with police authorities.

According to Katie Frey, spokesperson for U.S. Cellular, “Due to the volume of text messages sent by our customers every day, text messages are stored in our systems for approximately three to five days. The content of text messages can only be disclosed subject to a lawful request. We comply with every lawful request from authorities.

We have a dedicated team of associates who are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year, to handle requests for information in emergency situations. Law enforcement must be able to show that it’s an emergency and complete an Exigent Circumstance Form prior to receiving data. If a situation is not an emergency, law enforcement must submit a lawful request to receive the data.

Over the past five years, U.S. Cellular has received more than 103,000 requests in the form of subpoenas, court orders, search warrants and letters regarding customers’ phone accounts and usage.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 at 2:34 PM and is filed under Latest News, Mobile Devices, National News, Tech Norms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.